Aug 14, 2013

This morning was a chilly 55 degrees with wind chill, so I decided to go for a run instead of freezing my ass off on my bike. I started at a speedy pace to warm up, in the low 7's, and decided to make it a 10k tempo run. I challenged myself to keep my pace under 8 min/mile. It felt pretty hard, but manageable. I slowed down a bit on a particularly tiring hill, but kept pushing. Near the end, I saw that I could get a 10K personal best, so I gave it my all and almost sprinted to the finish. This was one of the hardest runs of my training, and it felt really good to get those miles done at that fast of a pace!

My iPhone app says I ran 6.3 miles in 49 minutes, averaging a 7:43 min/mile pace. To put that in perspective, I ran my first 10k last November (Turkey Chase) and finished in 52:10, so that's shaving about 4 minutes off. Now I know what it feels like to maintain a pace in the 7's, and it definitely requires a lot of effort. It was tiring, I was breathing hard, and I was outside of my comfort zone. Today's run showed me that in order for me to get faster and stronger, I need to run outside of my comfort zone more often. It's not particularly enjoyable, like when I'm running at an 8:30 pace, but it's effective.

When I first started running, my pace was about 10 min/mile. When I was getting more fit and could run longer, 10 min/mile started feeling a lot easier. I began running in the 9's, which I thought was pretty fast, until that felt easy. Now, my comfort zone is about 8:4x, which I can hold for my long runs. It's amazing to see myself improve since I started running about 14 months ago.

My Eats:

Yesterday, I found Peanut Butter and Co Dark Chocolate Dreams on sale (3.99 with a 55 cent off coupon!), so I grabbed two jars. I've seen PB&Co on the shelves before, but never tried it before. Now I'm kicking myself for not trying it sooner! The Dark Chocolate Dreams is what delicious breakfast dreams are made of.

For my pre-run breakfast, I slathered it over two slices of whole wheat toast and topped it with a sliced banana. Iced coffee per usual on the side. I might also have eaten some straight off my knife, you know, to top off those fuel stores.

And since I like breakfast so much that I eat it twice, post-run, I had some Greek yogurt with homemade gingerbread spice granola (recipe coming soon!) and another slice of toast with almond butter and berry preserves. Haha I love my carbs and nut butters :P

And yes, I did use the same plate as first breakfast without washing it. Hey, I'm conserving water, okay?